and they tampered with our nuclear weapons. and they've got proof! straight ahead. >> and they've stolen my luggage as well. they're calling him the new sully. delta pilot and his crew calm and in control as their plane hits the runway in two years. >> stay down! heads down! stay down! >> oh, man. >> sparks shooting up. >> now passengers are alive, well and telling their stories one of which caught it on tape. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> welcome aboard, folks. it's not every day that we can say we have big u.f.o. news. >> you just heard that harrowing flight attendant on that terrible delta flight a couple of days agoment we just got our hands on this brand new video as well showing sparks flying from that delta plane. it was forced to make an emergency landing with its right wheel down jammed in the up position.

listen as the flight attendant yells for passengers to get in the head position. >> heads down! stay down! stay down! heads down! stay down! >> hear the conversation between the pilot and the control tower just moments before. > >> to proceed over to j.f.k. and execute an emergency landing over there. and if it's that completely obvious, i want to confirm we are declaring an emergency. >> ac 4951, i understand you have your right gear stuck down. >> right gear is stuck up. other two are down. >> that plane landed safely. no one was hurt. i'll be on that exact flight on thursday. i hope they don't have a similar incident. this could soon be easier for the feds to track suspects on the internet now. law enforcement and national security officials are asking congress to clear the way for wiretap orders on blackberries and similar devices as well as on social networking sites like facebook and skype.

more suspects are communicating on line than by telephone. the internet wiretap bill will be submitted to lawmakers next year. the release of balloons and the pouring of cement signal the end of a 10-month construction freeze in the west bank. jewish settlers started building a kindergarten on land claimed by palestinians who are you no on the verge of breaking off the peace talks with israel. secretary of state hillary clinton has been working the phones trying on keep the negotiations from falling apart. extreme weather alert right now, residents are dealing with severe flooding. hundreds of homes and cars underwater. thousands of people are evacuated after heavy rains. minnesota and wisconsin have declared a state of emergency. and in portage, wisconsin, a levee is failing which means water could flood the town any minute now. those are your headlines for a monday. >> all right. 2 minutes after the top of the hour. it's real simple, tax cuts for everybody or just the middle

class, that decision will be -- ok, they got to decide whether they're going to vote on it and they're -- they can't decide when they're going to decide on when there's going to be a vote on the tax cuts. the bush tax cuts. here's an example of what we learned yesterday. >> it is a possibility to and me it's the surest way to send america into the second dip of a recession. >> you know what it gets down to is we can cut and we know we don't have 60 votes for our tax position. >> they've got time to bring a comedian. >> but don't have time to figure out what to do about the taxes. as you go into the voting booth come the first tuesday in november, americans according to what we've heard so far will not know what sort of taxes or tax hikes they're going to fix next year and that's one of the problems people say the uncertainty is killing people. why can't we know what we're going to pay in taxes next year? >> because once again, politics

is ahead of anything else in society right now about what's important. they'll wait until after the midterm elections, folks. this is all about politics. people across america should be really, really upset about this. steve touched on the big buzz word, that's uncertainty. businesses aren't going to continue to hire or start hiring, they're not going to lend to small businesses. everyone is living in this cloud of unknown even people who work in payroll departments, they're saying if this thing is not finalized by december 10th accident they don't know if they can change it at that point for january of next year. going to be a big huge mess. >> almost comical, steny hoyer says it's the bush tax increase. what do you mean it's bush tax increase? because bush put to them to expire in 2011. of course he didn't make it permanent. he didn't have the votes for that. speaker pelosi made everyone think they might force a vote on the bush tax cut. they'd have republicans on the record killing middle class on

down tax cuts. they want them on the record for that and maybe cost them republicans some votes. but then steny hoyer goes no way are we going to be doing that, even if we have the votes in the house, we don't have them in the senate. my mom worked in payroll for a while and she had to handle everyone's taxes, new tax rules. they have until december 10th. every payroll department will be pulling their hair out, they don't know if they're messing up your paycheck in january. >> we heard a snippet from john boehner talking about this. he'll provide the perfect transition to the next point. listen to this. >> they've got time to bring a comedian to washington, d.c. but don't have time to eliminate the uncertainty by extending all of the current tax rates, i think that's irresponsible. >> there he is. did somebody say comedian? they must be talking to steven colbert to came to capitol hill on friday and we told you it was going to be crazy and it was.

in fact, at one point, steven colbert tried to introduce into the congressional record the results of his colonoscopy. you don't see that every day. >> you know what, guys -- >> who thought this was a good idea. >> i didn't from the moment i heard it on thursday morning and i'm so glad to find out that the second highest ranking democrat in the house, steny hoyer also thought it was absolutely ridiculous. can you believe this guy went there in character? under oath like we have time for that right now. >> i think it was an embarrassment for mr. colbert more than the house. >> like he's embarrassed. oh, no. this will destroy his credibility as a fake tv guide but he went up there, one thing was absolutely hysterical and it was hysterical -- >> it was happening there. >> i didn't think it was funny. it was very well written.

the funny thing is no one laughed. i know that the republicans and democrats -- >> listen to this, he submitted a written statement and then went totally opposite way. so he gave them a head fake. so they knew -- if -- it's a she, right? >> yes. >> it's a she, chairman of the subcommittee. if she knew ahead of time, it's going to be steven colbert the fake news guy, that would have been really egregious. he embarrassed them and this person whose credibility is on the line. >> you're giving him too much of the benefit of the doubt, brian. she should have known he had the ability to -- >> john conyers knew. >> right. >> ridiculous. >> the committee invited him up there to look hip and get some publicity and they certainly got publicity. not so hip, though. john conyers, before mr. colbert even opened his mouth, he tried to derail it and he said you know what?

you can go ahead and enter your testimony into the record. you don't have to read it. please leave now. and then there was kind of a little squabble and colbert said, well, i came. if she wants me to leave, i'll leave and she said, you know, let's talk about this and then conyers withdrew it. it was extraordinary that it was so uncomfortable. pelosi, however, disagrees with hoyer. she says this. of course, i think it's appropriate. he's an american, right? he comes before the committee. he has a point of view. he can bring attention to an important issue like immigration. >> uh-huh. you think this is funny? i don't want a tomato picked by a mexican. i want it picked by a mexican and served by a venezuela in a spa where a chilian gives me a brazilian. >> it's hysterical. >> not when you're talking about the most important issues facing our society which is illegal immigration. >> the minute he invited it up, it was totally inappropriate and made democrats looking awful. when they weren't even laughing

and then for one thing he embarrassed this woman that brought him up there but my thing is if you liked it so much, take the clip of the show. like, for example, if we have to do a story. , they will sell you in a minute and a half story, see if you can grab somebody's attention. start with a comedic piece and then get serious from there. say this highlights what we want to do and get into it. >> there he was picking it out with the guys. >> you just destroyed some political careers and -- >> nancy pelosi stuck by it saying she thought it was a brilliant idea. and now, guess what, mebsz of her own party are starting to support somebody else potentially as speaker of the house, somebody a little bit more moderate. that is, of course, if they still are the majority after the midterm elections. people are rallying behind the moderate republican, they are trying to get him to come across the aisle to become a republican.

now attention focusing -- here are the people now calling out their own member, their own speaker of the house saying we don't want her anymore. we want this other guy. >> gene taylor and chet edwards. i will say this -- at any type of event i go to whether it's military oriented he seems to get a lot of respect from the soldiers in the military. >> right, he's been the chairman of the house armed services committee for a very, very long time. interesting thing about him is he's already declined the offer. i'm flattered but he is in a race against the republican out there in the fourth district of missouri. he might not return to congress anyway. >> here the big story we should have led with. >> exactly right. at the national press club today, there's going to be a number of retired military -- air force personnel who are going to say that they have witnessed with their own two eyes u.f.o.'s, unidentified flying something's over america's nuclear sites when they were posted there. and they did something and they

can't explain what to the missile systems down below. >> yes, you'll have six retired members of the military now at the national press club in d.c. and they'll say these incidents go back to 1967, 1980. they don't have any recent episodes. that could be because these gentlemen have all been retired for sometime so they haven't been in the loop. they all say the same thing. when they noticed these situations happening, they were all told, you cannot say anything about this. but here's my question, guys. why would aliens only be interested in our nuclear facility? >> because they know -- >> energy. >> yeah, they could be energy or they might be saying wow, this country over here looks really cool and they have deadly weapons, let's check it out. let's say they're more sophisticated than us and even more sophisticated than henry kissinger and seats say they shot beams of light. in 1980, they say they shot beams of light at r.a.f. and we have a joint base.

and they also saw a disk like object flying around. they parlayed that into a book that cite 120 retired and current officers who have had encounters with u.f.o.'s. >> sure. if somebody ever steps off a u.f.o. or something, who would that -- when they say take me to your leader. who would that be? would it be barack obama, president of the united states. no, it would be somebody just appointed to a post at the united nations. she will head up the office for outer space affairs. there she is. >> she's a physicist. >> you're serious, right? >> yeah. >> we're now going to have -- >> they spotted a bunch of galaxies far away, sooner or later, they come over here and we don't want any confusion about who should represent this. we've chosen this malaysian. >> take them here. >> it shows a lot of languages and focuses on physics. personally, i think we should get a vote in this and somebody

with a little bit of an attitude, maybe a bobby knight or rex ryan to try to scare away other potential life forms. >> richard dreyfuss was great in that movie. >> very good debater. >> we'll continue to debate that. who should replace larry summers? another economist or someone with experience in big business? a fair and balanced debate is next. >> then democrats unleashing some new attack ads. some say the strategy is designed to distract the voters from bigger issues like taxes and stuff like that. maybe about the u.f.o.'s thing, distract them from that. we're going to report, you decide. 1965, a lot of good thin came out that year

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>> we are joined but now by matt mccall, the president of penn financial group, he's screen left and peter morichi is the professor of business at the university of maryland. good morning, guys. >> good morning. >> professor, let's start with you. this white house has had a whole bunch of academics. so -- and considering the economic pickle that we're in right now, should he go back for another economist, somebody with book smarts or somebody with real world experience? somebody who has run a company?

>> well, let's be clear. someone who has book smarts can have real world experience. this job provides the president each day with his daily brief on the economy. that person translates things like the consumer price index, g.d.p. statistics, and it requires a technical background in economics to be successfully done. you know, we don't have -- we don't have a patient from open heart surgery reading our x-rays and so forth first. we have a physician. this is a job for an economist. this administration needs more industry people but not this job. >> all right. matt? >> all right, i think peter is right at the very end there. this job does need a lot more industry people. we've had the economists already in this seat and the problem with the economist is there's all sorts of meteorologists in my mind, they'll tell you the news after the fact. no offense, you're an economist. we need to be proactive, not reactive. we've seen what happened. once the numbers come in, yes you have to analyze them, how do we put this to work in the real

world? this country should be viewed as a very large company. president obama is the c.e.o. of a very large company. he needs people around him that have run real businesses in the past and that's the only way to get out of this economic turmoil we're in. >> peter, the problem with the president is he's a former law professor who has never operated a business. he's never been in a management situation. >> basic problem here is this president doesn't recognize the importance of the private sector and real world experience. my feeling is, yes, more folks from industry. but not in this position. there are going to be other openings. my feeling is treasury is going to open up. let's put somebody there who has business experience. commerce, health and human services may open up. put people there. i'm not -- i'm all for bringing in more industry people. you know, a physician is your doctor. you need someone who can really understand all this data to do the daily brief and that's the job. >> the problem, peter, is there's a lot of people in the white house that understand this data. the problem is taking this data and using it in a constructive

manner to help our economy. i mean, look, we continue to lose jobs and we can keep giving the data. however, if we can't take that data and grow our economy, this country/company that we have now with growing competition from brazil, from india, from china, we'll be in a lot of trouble. i think we need to start going to the private industry and we need to be doing that now. >> peter, professor at the university of maryland and matt mccall, president of penn financial. spirited debate. thank you very much for joining us. who do you think is right? should there be an economist in that job or somebody with real world experience? e-mail us right now, friends at foxnews.com. meanwhile, in a growing number of cities, democrats have a new campaign strategy. avoid the issues and get personal. >> on his reputation. but with this used car salesman, it's buyer beware. >> oh, great! is that going to work? two washington insiders are going to debate it next. then a growing problem for soldiers who return from battle. they can't find jobs.

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>> nato troops are striking deep into the heartland. they are doing sweeps in kandahar to try to drive out militants as part of operation nato strike. a general says the taliban troops are heavily entrenched and expect significant fighting. they sign the small business bill into law that provides $30 billion in banks for small business loans. republicans point out that banks are getting access to all the taxpayer cash but not being forced to lend it. gretch?

>> with the dems in danger of losing majority in congress, several have gone on the attack and made it personal focusing on the past. >> try to sell you on the reputation but with this used car salesman, it's buyer beware. >> so will this be a mistake for democrats to ignore the issues? joining me now is the executive director of go pac and penny lee, former senior advisor to harry reid and democratic strategist. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> will it be a mistake for democrats not talking about what they voted for and attacking their opponents? >> they have hit the panic button. if they can't talk about the issues, they will scream with as much venom and ugliness as they can to try to scare voters to not voting for republicans. the problem is they can't defend the record that they failed to create jobs and failed to get this economy moving. that's why they're in big trouble. >> how would you respond to

that? we've documented on this show, so many democrats who don't say they're democrats in their ads, number one, and certainly don't say they voted for health care or stimulus. >> i wish this told the whole story. unfortunately, it doesn't. right now, we have -- the democrats -- our candidates across the country are being viciously attacked by republican outside groups. so far, $26 million has been spent. 33,000 ads have been the outside groups with no accountability to the political system whatsoever. we are trying to defend what we have and we're being viciously attacked. >> penny, you're getting away from the point, though. why are democrats not saying they're democrats in the ads? >> they are. >> not saying we voted for health care and it passed. >> some are. harry reid is proud to be serving with him as majority leader and with him in the white house. there are countless -- i can go through many others. you have michael bennett. you have bloomberg up in connecticut.

so many of our candidates are standing with the president. and they're very proud of the record they're holding because we are starting to see from the collapse of the economic condition that we had eight years ago to beginning to build our way out of it. so it's not fair to say it's not. >> i want to take a look at the pattern. watch this. >> as treasurer he had economic problems and now he's a predatory real estate vehicle later. he snatched up 300 homes and cited for neglect and evicted a home owner on the verge of saving his house just to make a buck. experts say schemes like his prolong the crisis and "shake the stability of valley neighborhoods." hurting, helping himself. >> that's an ad in arizona put out by a democrat against a republican he is running against. david in the past, negative ads have worked. will they work this time around? >> well, let me just first say penny, it's a bold move for

harry reid to say he's the majority leader running the senate. secondly, to your question, gretchen, look, here's going to be the choice. come this fall, there are 432 republicans running for congress this year. it breaks the record we had in 1994 of 423. so in 432 districts there's going to be a choice between the democrats and the status quo or republicans who are offering lower taxes, the ability to create jobs and -- >> it's the same old tired agenda that we've seen time and time again that have failed us for the last eight years. do we want to continue forward or go back to where we once left? >> i've heard those talking points before. thank you so much for your time this morning. >> thank you. >> members of the black panther party meeting with an iranian dictator and they're the only ones. why would american citizens want to meet with america's enemies? we'll report and you can decide.

talk about an international mistake, the president's flag flap at the u.n. accidentally putting one country at war. and happy birthday to a friend of the show, meatloaf. he turns 63 today. hey guys. jennifer hudson here. when it came to losing weight before weight watchers, my world was can't. can't eat this. can't do that. can't lose weight. but on weight watchers i can. weigh less than did in high school. can. stand here not suckin' in a thing. sure can. lose weight, learn to keep it off, and feel liter and liberated in so many ways. i can. i did. i am. and you can too. and you can join for free. weight watchers. because it works.

>> all right. welcome back. it's 29 minutes before the top of the hour. time for the shot of the morning. accidental insult by the obama administration flying the flag of the philippines upside down during a u.n. meeting on friday. that's typically a sign the country is at war or distressed. >> it happens. they got the other ones right. why is the glass always half empty? come on. >> they said it was a mistake. we're sorry. >> let's do a couple of headlines. new effort to free the detained hikers in iran. omen delegation that helped free sarah shourd now back in the country trying to win the

release of the two hikers. iran still maintains the hikers are american spies. >> ok. iran confirming its nuclear program has been affected by a mysterious computer virus. the head of the power plant says the virus is only affecting staff computers and not the running reactor. the problem comes just weeks before the country's first nuclear power station is going to go on line. >> that's comforting. the imam behind the mosque at ground zero now promming the united states government to sign off anyone who wants to donate to the project. he's saying the mosque's board of directors will include muslim, christians and jews. the olive branch comes as dozens of people protested another proposed mosque. this one in brooklyn, new york. >> the door just opened a little bit wider for rahm emanuel. david hoffman now says he won't jump into the race. it's been rumored white house chief of staff, of course,

emanuel will jump into the race. he has until november to decide what he's going to do. >> meanwhile, let's take a look at where it's raining and as you can see the eastern third of the u.s. of a, if you're looking at satellite and radar right now is soggy. as we start this work week or school week or whatever you're up to, all the way from new england right on down through the panhandle of florida. it's going to be a soaker through the mid atlantic. raleigh is really getting hammered, as you can see and some thunderstorms moving that way as well throughout the day. meanwhile, temperatures in the central plain states a little on the chilly side. only 48 right now in kansas city. temperatures even chillier in portions of northern missouri and iowa as well. meanwhile, later on today, on this monday, 75 in raleigh and they're going to wind up with rain. 89 in tampa and temperatures in the 80's and 90's in florida back through the gulf coast. it looks like here in new york city, home of the jets, 69. >> what a transition because i think that's who brian is going to start talking about when he

does sports. >> it's so weird. >> got to get the miami -- >> that's true. no, you're right. miami, the game was excellent again. nbc really lucked out again with the sunday night game. jets-dolphins. amongst the crowd, a lot of celebrities in miami including lebron james, quarterback mark sanchez is the biggest star of the night. he was sensational. three scores. jets jump out to a 14-0 lead and they dropped that lead for a moment and came back strong in the fourth. braylon edwards who had a run-in with a breathalyzer missed that one and caught this one. hopefully he learned his lesson. looking to tie the score late. get into the end zone with a two point conversion, he'll be picked off. they've won two in a row. next up, we go to jacksonville. michael vick looks like he never was in prison for two years. he got the starting job not only with the pass but with his feet. he looked extremely comfortable

in the pocket and by the way, his team went up 28-3 on the jaguars and then vick is doing what he came in the league doing. avoiding tackles and running a lot. next up, the washington redskins and the ex-eagles quarterback don mcnabb. the cowboys and vikings in must win situations. we go to houston with the cowboys dominated the texans who dropped to 2-1. romeo to williams. he discovered how to catch the ball. dallas gets their first win and in minnesota, gretchen, bret favre who is going to be 55 in may. >> no, he's not! >> he gets his first victory of the year after coming back. he had a touchdown pass number 499. adrian peterson who can break a few tackles, 160 yards overall. vikings beat the lions 24-10. unrelated, coming up on the radio show, kilmeade & friends from 9:00 until noon, bret baier, colonel west and we'll be joined by a friend in the final half-hour. >> we'll look forward to that.

we know that mahmoud ahmadinejad, the leader of iran was in new york last week for the united nations. one thing that was documented over the weekend was that he never changed his shirt or suit which might have been problematic for people who wanted to meet with him in six days. but somebody who didn't have a problem with that or anything else that he's ever said about america or anyone else in the world, remember when he said he wanted to blow israel off the face of the map, well, guess who met with him. louis farrakhan, the new black panthers leader in new york city, they met at a hotel for lunch, apparently, and the big question now is why wouldn't this get more press, number one? number 2, why do some americans love to have this love affair with our enemies? >> yeah, this apparently was some sort of powwow they had in the ballroom at the warwick hotel which is just up the street from where we're sitting right now. it is interesting that that would go on. also, some details are coming out about, apparently, farrakhan -- not farrakhan, ahmadinejad so freaked out about his personal

security, he had secret service bring in take-out food from persian restaurants and according to somebody who is there, apparently really stunk up the place. the spicy grub made the whole hotel stink like hell, according to one nose witness. >> so there were two problems with the smell, then, clothes and food. but more importantly, politically what does this say? remember that the new black panther party was instrumental in electing barack obama and so now -- and they also -- remember, this was from back during the election when there were allegations that there was voter intimidation going on at this one polling place in pennsylvania. nothing really ever came of that case. but what is it saying now that farrakhan meets with ahmadinejad? will anyone come out and make a statement about that? >> probably not. i don't see it. and it's unbelievable, though, they didn't make this public. if you're so proud of it and if you want to really meet with them bad, you have to come to new york city, the capital of the world. come out and say have a big

handshake and get papparazzi around you. you don't see much of farrakhan these days. when you see him, it's controversial and if you come up, we might get a personal letter asking for a debate which we got. >> we did. what did we do on that? >> we're not, i don't think. >> how many times have we seen americans meet with guys that are on -- >> anyway. >> chavez? >> sure. >> oliver stone goes to meet with hugo chavez. shun penn has met with ahmadinejad and chavez. you have danny glover meeting with hugo chavez. >> it's not unusual. castro seems to have a direct line with hollywood over the last 40 years. >> e-mail us, why do you think that is? >> coming to kids comic books, a muslim superhero? >> and the federal government is swooping in with yet another big bailout but you wouldn't know it! stuart varney is here with a lesson the feds may have missed. come on in, mr. varney, you're next on "fox & friends."

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bend metal with his mind. creator says he was inspired by president obama's outreach to the muslim world. a group of young disabled americans and syrians were consulted to create that character. interesting. >> federal government quietly revamping the wholesale credit industry. seizing three troubled credit unions and backing their plan with $30 billion. stuart varney says it's yet another bailout. >> it is. >> it is? >> sure is. look, you've got the bank bailout, freddie mac got a bailout, housing bailout. auto bailout, and now we have the credit union bailout, ok? one thing after another and this one was passed in the dead of night. in the middle of a weekend. all very quietly so that we don't notice it is another bailout five weeks before -- >> what happened to the credit unions that they need a bailout? we always were told that they did ok through this. >> look, credit unions provide

basic no frills banking and basic financial services often through employers who offer employees this basic banking, ok? you put the money into a credit union and it comes back to you very cheap banking services. now, what's been bailed out of these wholesale credit unions, that's where your money goes from the credit union to the wholesaler who organizes investment structure and manages the money. supposed to keep it safe. didn't. they're going under. bailout requires. >> let's take a look at the list of those. these are five who failed, the wholesale credit unions, members united, southwest corp, constitution corp, u.s. central corp and western corp. that's the amount that's going to help there. >> they're going to issue $30 billion worth of bonds that will go to back up those wholesale credit unions and they'll be financed essentially -- won't cost the taxpayer any money

immediately but you're on the hook for the investments behind those bonds which are lousy mortgages. >> where did their dough go? we understand the housing market where people's home values go down. where did this money go? >> these wholesale banks are supposed to keep the money safe. they didn't. they're supposed to invest in safe, liquid assets. they didn't. they invested in mortgage-backed securities. >> you're kidding! >> no, just like anybody else. >> don't they learn? >> they have a triple radar on them. >> didn't they see the wall street movie? >> watching our show. that's what happened. they have to be bailed out. five weeks before the election, another bailout takes place on a weekend. very few people have heard of this. news to everybody. >> the administration says this will not cost us taxpayer money. where's the money going to come from? >> they're right, it won't cost the taxpayer any money immediately. the money will be raised by a bond offering that taxpayer backs up those bonds so that if they go sour down the road, the

taxpayer is on the hook. >> let me ask you something, i read this with half a eye in the morning and is there good news coming from a.i.g. as the government is converting from preferred stock to common stock. >> essentially it means you and i, the taxpayers of america will become almost full owners, outright of a.i.g. if this goes through and we convert this debt to common stock, we the taxpayers own the common stock. we will own, i believe, it's 80% or 90% of a.i.g. we've nationalized it. >> it can go with our car company. >> why not? why not? you know? >> sell it off but they're not doing it to sell it off. >> they will, sell it off to the taxpayer. >> what's coming up on "varney & company"? >> we have all kinds of good things much today at 9:20 we'll look very closely about what nancy pelosi is saying, will we get a debate and vote this week on taxes? ok? you can have steven colbert, can

you get a vote on tax? good question. >> exactly. great to see you. happy monday. >> coming up straight ahead, john kerry knows why democrats are losing support. it's not the politicians' fault. it's the voters, you people, you're not smart enough and not paying attention. thanks, john! >> and it's a growing problem, soldiers return from battle and can't find work. up next, the companies that are committed to hiring those heroes. right here on "fox & friends." ♪

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>> as you know, they risk their lives to protect our freedom. when they come home, oftentimes they can't find a job. despite having some of the best training available. now, right now, there are about 175,000 new veterans who can't find a job. they're unemployed. first lady michelle obama addressing the growing problem. >> so often, veterans find themselves becoming underutilized. underemployed. settling for jobs that pay less than they deserve. jobs that don't fully harness their talents. or they find themselves out of work entirely for months on end. >> but there are many companies who do realize veterans' incredible potential in training and are committed to hiring them. joining us right now, suni hartford with the regional group of markets for north america. mike is sitting next to him, the senior v.p. of new york federal reserve and john is the head of sponsor investment, he was lucky enough to get very close to me. thank you very much, john. first, suni, to you, what do you

see in the veteran that you want other companies to realize? >> veterans are a tremendous resource. the skill set is unparalleled in anything you'll get out of an undergrad or graduate degree. they've got maturity. they've got multitasking nailed and they handle stressful situations and it's a tremendous learning experience they have overseas. >> you talk about discipline. mike, you served. you're a former officer in the navy from 1983 to 1989, you realized it when you hire this generation of veterans, what are you getting? >> well, particularly for the federal reserve purposes, something we're getting that's very important to us is a commitment. deep commitment to service, to serving others and a maturity and a life decision to go along that route that's very useful to us in addition to the long list that suni just mentioned, i could add great intelligence, risk management, these are individuals who had to make very difficult decisions urged stressful circumstances and have

done it very well. >> you don't go into the academies because you want to be famous. you don't go in there because you want to be rich. you go in there and the sacrifice starts almost immediately. john, i'm not telling you anything new. you're a veteran and naifg academy grad. what do you think about when you see the numbers? 175,000 out of work and right now in this country, over a million veterans can't find a job. >> very strong feelings. you look at these people that decided to serve their country. i think we've made a lot of progress since the 1970's when people came back to rotten tomatoes and picket lines. there's a lot further we can go. what resonated at beutche bank and not only the numbers but there was a real match that we could work together to fix the problem. >> you know, suni, i thought they would be great tv producers. if you're in the field, they have this gene this them. get it done. whatever happens, don't tell me how, just get it done. does that work in your business?

>> tv producers, bankers, same idea. absolutely. >> find a way. >> don't look at the clock. >> they get it done and it's a nonstop early hours don't bother them. all the way through. they're very committed to the job. >> mike, what could you do to get other companies on board? do you find that's one of your missions as a vet? >> absolutely. anything i can do to personally contribute to that. what the fed is doing in particular is working closely with this wall street war fighters organization which brings wounded veterans through a program designed to -- over the course of a year, better position them to work on wall street and they actually begin that program early on in that program, they spend time at the new york fed where we instruct them about the financial system and try to get them up to speed on that. >> you know, john, one thing about fox is we're carrying almost all the bases overseas. thankfully some of these men and women are getting out right now and saying wow, this sounds great. i want to change in my career. i'm going to get out and get at

the job mark. >> we are kicking off our first annual veterans conference that is designed to help veterans find jobs on wall street but also at many of the vendors and partners that we have that can -- that can also help. >> and no offense, but wouldn't it be great to have a wall street which is anchored by the values and ethics of our military presented on a daily basis? >> well, i wouldn't say that we don't have those ethics, brian, of course, but i think the reality is all the firms are working together in some instances and on their own hiring thousands of veterans across the country. citigroup has a huge network of resume building. one of the issues they have when they come back is the resumes don't look like normal resumes. search engines don't reflect a lot of the phrases they would use in their resume and what not. there's a big disconnect between corporate america and the veterans coming home. >> what we're going to do is get the web site and foxnews.com,

everybody watching, family members, people who are serving, going to get out in a few months or a few years, whatever it is. find out to get rid of your companies. hope ofly the companies out there will see you and say i want to do that, too. thanks for your service and thanks for your time. >> thank you. >> straight ahead, two more hours. first this, 40 registered voters living in a house built for eight and the same person registering six times in one day. coming up, a group of regular citizens who expose rampant voter fraud in their hometown and then president obama's top advisor saying no thanks to bill clinton's advice. there's a new battle brewing. dana perino joins us at the top of the hour. that's what dana looks like. copd makes it hard for me to breathe.

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>> good morning, everyone. hope you had a great weekend. it's monday, september 27, 2010. the white house responding now to this advice from former president bill clinton. >> if we don't do better, you can vote against us all and i'll be on the ballot, too. vote against us all if it's not better. >> president obama's top advisor heard that and said, no thanks. >> comedian steven colbert makes a mockery of capitol hill. don't look at me, gretchen. >> you liked it. >> i thought it was funny. i'm not saying it was a good idea. it was funny. i read on. so does the congressional testimony serve its purpose? even some democrats don't think so. >> meanwhile, the flight attendants instructing dozens of passengers to brace for impact. look at this. out the window. >> stay down! heads down! stay down! stay down! >> seconds later they were safe on the ground after a nightmare ordeal. why this emergency landing rivals the miracle on the hudson. that's straight ahead. "fox & friends" hour two for a monday starting right about now!

>> hi, everybody. i'm huey lewis. stand by for the news. >> he makes me laugh. >> we'll get to the news headlines in a moment. we will bring to in dana perino, the former spokesperson for george w. bush. good morning, dana. it's monday. >> it is and it's raining here. >> here, too. >> here as well. all over the place. we heard bill clinton giving advice to president obama but then david axelrod came on the sunday shows yesterday and he said, let's listen to clinton first and then to axelrod's response. >> i'd like to see him and say, here's what i think this election is about. the only thing that matters is what we're going to do now. here's the they're things that we ought to do now and here's why our side is more likely to do it and let me tell you something, we couldn't get out. of this $3 trillion hole in 21 months. give us two more years. don't go back to the policies that dug the hole. but if we don't do better, this is the last thing, if we don't

do better, you can vote against us all and i'll be on the ballot, too. vote against us all if it's not better. >> when he leaned forward, chris wallace broke out in hives. he must be thinking here we go again. what do you think about what he said? you see some type of a schism forming between obama and clinton? at least the message? >> well, it's not easy when you have a former president who is very popular still with the base out giving you campaign advice in the middle of a midterm where you're likely to lose a lot of seats. that's not comfortable -- it's not a comfortable place to be and i think david axelrod felt it was probably better that clinton did not say it but he did and he has clinton out on the campaign trail with him this week. >> here's mr. axelrod out there responding to william jefferson clinton. >> clinton is a great politician and i'm not in any way going to quarrel with him. i think people in 2012 will vote on this and i don't think they need an invitation to do so. >> they're going to vote on him

in 2012. don't you think they're going to vote on it in 2010? >> they are. i think in some ways yesterday, overall on the sunday shows, i felt like the democrats had basically cried uncle. they're just mailing it in, giving up and they just want to focus on 2012. they know 2010 will be so bad but i don't -- i have yet to see how that turns out. yesterday, it felt with clinton trying to give president obama campaign advice, david axelrod thought, thanks, we appreciate it. but we'll go our own way. >> but the problem is you have two rock stars in the democratic party right now. it's michelle obama, the first lady of the united states and bill clinton. if you don't like what bill clinton is going to say, you need him too much to actually contradict him but he also -- >> don't want to disrespect a former president. i mean, the truth is president clinton has really good advice for them. >> yeah. >> we were just discussing on the set, he probably would have handled the velma situation differently than president obama potentially. let's move ahead to john kerry,

of course. senator john kerry because he said this amazing thing about voters who are about 30 some days away from going to the polls. here's the quote, dana. we have an electorate that doesn't always pay that much attention to what's going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what's happening. isn't that how many people believe president obama got elected? that people listened to a single slogan. but to say this now, is that true when the electorate seems to be more energized than ever before? >> he went on to say, what he meant is he's less informed than before. i think the opposite is true. one of the reasons incumbents republicans and democrats are both in more trouble this year is because voters are more informed than ever before. remember back to the health care town hall. it was the voters who had actually read the bill when the member of congress or the senator had not. and so, you know, senator kerry, i'm sure what he meant was that people don't understand the complexities, the historical

reasons why we got here, it's too hard to describe in a soundbite but the problem is not that people are too uneducated or not interested enough in this election, they're more informed than ever. >> i think so, too. and he also said if they were more informed, they'd be mad at stonewalling republicans but republicans just didn't want the policies as jack welch used to be at general electric said, he goes republicans should be stonewalling because it's bad policies and the republicans mind, that's why they're stonewalling. flip side to everything. let's talk about the bush tax cuts that, by the way, steny hoyer, i think, called the bush tax hikes because president bush didn't extend them past 2010. >> nice try. >> which was staggering. but i cannot believe the differing opinions about whether we're going to have a vote or not before this election. were you surprised at that, dana? >> i was surprised because i think it's unfortunate for the democrats. it's astounding that, one, that they haven't heeded the advice from the economic community and businesses saying we desperately

want certainty and even if they had voted on it, and not extended all the tax cuts, at least then businesses would know, right? you would know and you could plan. the other reason is i think politically, it really did look like yesterday they were just throwing their hands up and saying, uncle. you know, there's nothing more we can do. >> when the goes gets tough, the tough punt. here's dick durbin explaining it so simply. it's a math problem. >> you know what it gets down is we can count and we know we don't have 60 votes for our tax position. >> hey, they're the majority. >> right. but it's not that they don't have 60 votes. they have five democratic senators who have all said they were opposed to a tax hike so it's a little nice spin on his part but the truth is they didn't have anywhere near close to so republicans blocking. >> somebody that went up to capitol hill and delivered a lot of spin in my mind was comedian steven colbert when he came to testify about immigration and

testify in character, dana. which i find still hard to fathom three days later, under oath. steny hoyer at least had a brain in his head when he said this on the sunday talk shows. >> his testimony was not appropriate. now, i think it was an embarrassment for mr. colbert more than the house. >> he's really worried about being embarrassed. >> well, you know -- >> what's interesting about that is speaker pelosi had said she thought it was a good way to pay attention to the issue and she thought it was fine and here you have a very well respected steny hoyer on both sides of the aisle. i mean, he's got a job to do to represent the democrats. at the end of the day, you can work with the steny hoyer. >> you know what's interesting, i'm not sure either party benefits from bringing up illegal immigration right now. red hot third rail. when you bring in steven colbert and the whole nation talks about it, i loved it, i hate it. funny, not funny. why did they do it? you wonder is this going to be getting some traction leading up to the first week in november?

>> no, the only traction it got, brian, is it shows democrats are so inept they can't pull together a hearing to focus on a really important issue, immigrant labor. they haven't been able to deal with the issue and haven't been able to move forward a bill. they make a mockery of it and it's silly and not even humorous. >> right. because this is one of the most controversial and important issues facing our society today. so talk about appropriateness, what about action? >> well, and i will say that sometimes celebrities can really help an issue, you know on stem cell research, michael j. fox focused on that. gary sinese focuses on veterans and angelina jolie focuses on humanitarian issues. their focus can be helpful. they don't come in character. >> that's such a good point. when borat ambushed a bunch of people, politicians they had no idea who sasha barren cohen was but everybody in the room knew who steven colbert was. it was amazing he did get invited.

you have an open invitation, of course, every monday. always a pleasure. thank you very much for joining us. >> have a good week. >> you've come in character. ok. >> ok. >> thanks, dana. let's do a couple of headlines for you. we have new amazing video. check this out, into the fox newsroom of that incredible landing at j.f.k. airport. >> get down! >> you can see the sparks flying right outside the window. delta flight forced to make an emergency landing with its right wheel jammed in the up position. you can hear the flight attendant screaming for passengers to get into the crash position! >> get down! heads down! stay down! heads down! stay down! heads down! >> here's a conversation between the pilot and the control tower moments before. >> our plan should be to proceed over to j.f.k. and execute an emergency landing over there. and if it's not completely obvious, i want to confirm we are declaring an emergency. >> auto ac 4951, understand you have your right gear stuck down?

>> right gear is stuck up. the other two are down. >> fortunately, that plane landed safely and no one was hurt. >> congress is expected to vote on the long delayed september 11th health bill this week before adjourning for the campaign season. the bill failed to pass back in july after democrats blocked republicans from adding amendments to it. if passed, the bill will provide $7 billion for medical treatment for 9/11 first responders. the feds are trying to crack down on terrorists and other criminals who use the internet. law enforcement and national security officials are asking congress to clear the way now for wire tape to include e-mail, blackberries and social networking sites like facebook. that would be wiretapping, i believe. more suspects are communicating on line than by telephone and the wiretap bills will be submitted to lawmakers next year. release of balloons and the pouring of cement signalling the end of a 10 month construction freeze in the west bank but the

renewed building by jewish settlers could suddenly derail peace talks with palestinians. joining us now from the west bank is leland vittert with an update on the situation there. good morning. >> good morning, gretchen. this is the picture everyone has been trying to prevent. the u.s. and the international community which is construction once again by jewish settlers on the west bank. they're working on more houses like the ones just behind us. if you take a look to the left, this is the we have bank. this is area that the palestinians want for their state and the area that i'm standing on is really important. this concrete pad was poured just about 10 months ago before the settlement freeze began. the palestinians said if the freeze wasn't extended, they were walking away from the table. the freeze wasn't extended and the palestinians haven't walked away just yet. they're meeting in cairo to have a big meeting in trying to figure out what they're going to do. the israelis say this is just

another road block as they head towards the peace process. but it's important to note that they have paid a real price here not only politically but also a price in blood as gunmen opened fire on two israeli citizens last night here in the west bank. gretchen? >> leland viter, live for us. thank you very much for that update. >> all right. it's a dozen minutes after the top of the hour. straight ahead on this monday morning, 40 registered voters living in a house built for eight. how about the same person registering six times in one day? up next, a group of regular citizens who exposed some rampant voter fraud in their own hometown. >> then, what went wrong? a water taxi carrying dozens of people crashes into a pier full speed. >> oh, man. >> the police are involved. ♪ proud to stand on our own, proud to be homegrown ♪

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>> it started out as a plan to research voter fraud in their hometown. when the group true the vote checked the numbers, they couldn't believe just how rampant the fraud really was. >> for example, people registering six times, 40 registered voters and one half way house and even faked signatures, the spokesperson for true the vote, president and c.e.o. of the liberty institute join us right now for more on

this story. well, kelly, first off, kelly, what alerted you to this story? >> well, the -- actually this group of citizens came to us because they had found some information that really was fairly shocking and they knew the type of people that engage in this type of conduct might threaten them and they wanted to make sure they did everything right under the law and they handed this information over to authorities in the right way and i think they're a great example for the whole country, any citizen can do what these citizens have done and i think they're heroes. they've even got a web site true the vote where citizens can go and like -- see what they did and how easy it is to just check in your own community, be involved. be a poll watcher. make a difference. >> so katherine, you are one of those citizens and you started this, true the vote. why? >> well, we -- like so many of us, we were just concerned about the direction of the country and wanted to get involved and had heard that there was a need to work at the polls so that's what we did. what we saw we weren't prepared

for. we saw people being allowed to vote without showing their registration which is something you have to do here in texas. we saw election judges who would vote for people when they said they didn't remember who vote for. and when confronted, the typical response went something along the lines of, well, that's my word against yours and it was after that experience that we really -- we really saw the need to start something like a project like true the vote. you can't -- you can't pretend that you didn't see what you saw when you worked at the polls. i couldn't look at my children and not do something about it. and so we began at the beginning by filing open records requests and looking at the voter registry. looking at incoming voter registration applications and that is, as you said earlier, that's where we saw thousands of questionable voter registration applications. people on the registry who are registered to vote at vacant lots, who are registered to

vote, you know, at businesses. >> yeah. >> and we rolled through some of the fraud, different things we've seen while you were talking. leo vasquez, head county tax collector and registrar says this, it shows the organization is conspiring in a falsification of documents in a deliberate effort to overburden our processing system with thousands of duplicate and incomplete voter registration applications. your reactions to that, kelly? >> this is another one of those acorn like groups that clearly is abusing the system. i mean, i think the county registrar said that they had submitted over 25,000 registrations and only 7,193 of those were valid. that is obviously inappropriate. >> that is so scary! i mean, kelly, that is so scary! i'm saying this is one city that you have uncovered this stuff, katherine. so -- >> that's right. >> you got to wonder, i mean,

obviously this is going on everywhere. right? >> it is going on everywhere and i can -- i can tell you that we have been hit from all across the nation with states who have stories that would just make your hair stand up and it's time that citizens get involved, you know, for too long, we thought that government had this under control. that the electoral process can go on without -- without any further citizen involvement and the fact of the matter is this is a volunteer -- primarily a volunteer run effort. it's up to every citizen now to get involved. this is -- >> we have to wrap it up there. people can learn more about your organization and go to our web site at foxnews.com and we'll link you up with that. thank you very much. >> thanks so much. >> thank, guys. meanwhile, straight ahead, more states are allowing medical marijuana but they're seeing a spike in pot related arrests. should we really be turning to pot? we'll debate it. >> the first confessions from an imam who wants to build the mosque near ground zero.

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>> so autoed glaur ienlly fup. the news by the numbers is finally ready. that's the number of hyundai sonatas being recalled because of steering wheel problems. only 2011 models are affected. next, 18 million. that's how many people voted in republican primaries this year. that's three million more than votes for democratic primaries. the last time that happened 1930. $19 million. that's how much money i have in my pocket and that's how much "wall street 2, money never sleeps" pulled in this weekend. the 3d animated film "legends of the guardians" pulled in second but you had to wear the funny

glasses. >> i'm guessing it was in 3d? america is going up in smoke. according to a new report, the use of illegal marijuana has skyrocketed last year and so did the number of arrests related to the drug. more than half of the united states drug arrests in 2009 were related to pot. well, now, critics are blaming the acceptance of medical marijuana for the statistics. but is that a fair argument? with us right now is a former drug addict, bishop ron allen. and the government relations director for the marijuana policy project in washington, d.c. good morning to both of you guys. >> good morning, steve. >> steve fox, let's start with you. if somebody is breaking the law, they should be arrested, right? >> well, i mean, we need to change our laws fortunately that's the basic truth. we have laws right now that do punish people and even arrest them for choosing to use a substance that's less harmful than alcohol. >> if they are breaking the law, they should be arrested. >> i'm not saying they should be but they are right now. what we need to do is change the

laws because it's irrational. people, adults, the spike in use that you're talking about was driven in large part by people who are between the ages of 50 and 60 who have had a great experience with marijuana and alcohol and they realize that marijuana is less harmful and that's what they want to use. >> bishop, you feel that pot use has skyrocketed because of these dispenseries and stuff like that where people can go in and they wind up a prescription for pot or talk someone into giving them pot even though they don't need it. >> absolutely. the mantra for the drug legalizers are pot is less harmful than alcohol. less harmful. they can't look at us or the state of california with a straight face and not say that pot is not harmful. well, steve fox, what would you like for me to give you? a rattle snake or cobra? what's less harmful? we understand the reasons why marijuana has spiked up.

it is because these marijuana pot shops that's all around the state of california. we have seen one time that we had more marijuana pot shops in l.a. than starbucks and these pot shops are able to sell dope to anyone and anybody that come into their facilities. >> steve fox? >> well, the truth is if i had the choice, i'd have a gardner snake and that's what we're talking about. ron allen tries to compare marijuana and alcohol as if they are two really dangerous drugs. but marijuana is far less harmful and it's irrational to punish people if they simply want to use something less harmful. that's why the support for proposition 19 with the backing of law enforcement and others is going up. and it's going to keep going up. >> and bishop, before we go, i know you told one of our producers, the problem with these dispenseries -- keep in mind, in november, california is going to decide whether or not to legalize pot. that's why we're talking about. this you say that anybody with an i.d. card identifying them as somebody who can get pot

could go buy it from multiple dispenseries and then resell it to kids or anybody else as well, right? >> look, we have these faulty doctors, physicians, who the medical board need to look at that are giving away recommendation for individuals with hangnails. and these youth, young adults, are able to walk into multiple pot shops and buy marijuana and then resell the pot on the streets. and steve fox, you wonder why we have a spike and an increase in marijuana use? it is -- it is absolutely because we need stronger regulations on pot shops. >> all right. who's right? folks out there in tv land, e-mail us right now, friends at foxnews.com. thanks to bishop ron allen and steve fox for joining us today. good day. >> thank you, steve. >> thank you, sir. coming up, nearly 80 people

thrown to the ground and tossed in the water when their water taxi slammed into a pier. plus the new "wall street" movie dominated the weekend box office of the it's different than the 1980's classic. next, meet the real life wall street insider who taught michael douglas how modern day greed, for lack of a better word is different. hey guys. jennifer hudson here. when it came to losing weight before weight watchers, my world was can't. can't eat this. can't do that. can't lose weight. but on weight watchers i can. weigh less than did in high school. can. stand here not suckin' in a thing. sure can. lose weight, learn to keep it off, and feel liter and liberated in so many ways. i can. i did. i am. and you can too. and you can join for free. weight watchers. because it works.

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>> we have an extreme weather alert for you now. a levee is failing in portage, wisconsin and water could flood the town any minute now. heavy rains are driving the wisconsin river more than 3 1/2 feet above flood stage and the levee which is 120 years old was built in the late 1800's and

it's built mostly with sand. and hundreds of homes in minnesota and south dakota are also underwater. parts of south dakota are experiencing their worst flooding in 15 years. desperate situation out there. >> well, moments ago, southwest announcing it is buying its rival air tran. the cost $1.4 billion. so this will allow southwest to operate out of 100 airports and serve more than 100 million passengers. we're going back to that whole thing where it's a monopoly, right, of airlines? >> that wouldn't be good. the opposition to venezuelan president hugo chavez is growing in his own country. the weekend parliamentary elections, chavez's allies want 96 seats. yes, 96 seats for the opposition party. they want 61 seats overall. this sends chavez's 2/3 party majority that allowed him to pass controversial legislation unopposed. maybe that's why he didn't come to the united nations big party. >> that's one theory.

the imam behind the mosque at ground zero promising to let the u.s. government sign off on anybody who wants to donate to the $100 million project. he's also saying that the mosque's board of directors will include muslims, christians and jews. the olive branch comes as dozens of people protested another proposed mosque, this one across the river in brooklyn, new york. >> investigators trying to figure out why a water taxi ferrying more than 70 people slammed head on into a pier in seattle. crew members told passengers to hold on before the impact sent them flying. seven people suffered minor injuries. the crew is being tested now for drugs and alcohol which is standard procedure. >> time to head over to brian for a quick look at some of the sports and football action. >> yeah, last night, the sunday night game, everybody wants to beat the jets especially after rex ryan's boisterous portrayal of his squad and after "hard knocks" on hbo. they were unable to do that. mark sanchez growing up before

your eyes. very impressive. sanchez, three touchdowns including one to braylon edwards who lost the fight with a br breathalyzer. picked off by drew coleman. jets win 31-23. they won two straight. >> jets! jets! jets! >> settle down, please, i believe we have a jet fan here. next in jacksonville, the resurgence of michael vick continued in a big way. vick three touchdown strikes and showed he can still outrun everyone. that was not an easy pass to execute. final score there, we'll put them up 28-3. eagles go on to win by the same score. they face donovan mcnabb next week. it was mcnabb who told the eagles go bring in michael vick. alonzo chapman is the 22-year-old cincinnati reds pitcher, he's a sensation. he has thrown the fastest pitch ever recorded in modern baseball history.

105 miles per hour. the pitch was not a fluke. chapman threw 25 pitches in the 1 1/3 innings he pitched in relief and everyone was at least 100 miles per hour. the reds magic number to clinch the division now just one after the 12-2 victory against the padres on sunday. >> meanwhile, when michael douglas won his oscar in a 1987 hit movie "wall street" the word was greed. over 20 years later, wall street has changed a whole bunch. >> when director oliver stone tried to cap into the current state of wall street, he went to real life bankers like thomas. >> off the 52-week high and it's funded by none more than guess who. my suggestion is that we get aggressive. agreed? >> we all agree? >> i just don't think it's a

risk we should be taking right now. that's all. i'd wait. >> wait for what? beam me up scottie hydrofusion deal. >> you're talking about something else. that's apples and oranges. >> joining us is thomas, c.e.o. of investment banking firm john thomas financial who you just saw playing a wall street chief in the new film "wall street, money never sleeps". now you're into acting. >> how did this all come down? >> back last year when they were researching for oliver stone for -- >> name dropper. >> name dropper. for trading firms, he was recommended to come see me because he was looking for like the look and feel of what a real trading firm looks like and when he came to my office, you know, he was very impressed so besides liking what he saw, he offered me a role in the film which i gladly accepted. >> of course. one of the opening scenes of the film when michael douglas gets out of prison, he's giving his personal effects back and the last thing is a -- a portable phone. and it's that motorola brick like this. back then in 1987, that was

quite exotic. fast forward to today, it's not about the little phone which wasn't so little, it's about the internet. >> the biggest difference is the flow of information. back then you saw the infamous phone was like cutting edge technology and now it's like ancient. we have a device that's one size that flows all the information so quickly. >> how did you get it -- how is this story told? told in a way that told honestly what happened. some of the dishonesty that went on there but not go everyone's heads. >> it's not a documentary on wall street. it's just a great story. you combine that with a cast like shia and josh brolin, michael douglas reprising a role back as gordon gecco and you have the backdrop of the economic meltdown. it just makes great for a story for everyone to go see. >> if you're saying it's not a documentary, then we don't see what really happened on wall street. a lot of people have had problems with government intervention now and financial reform and government sticking its nose kind of in business.

>> big bonuses, correct, yeah. >> if it's not a documentary, does it touch on anything like that, how the market really crumbled? >> what it touched on is the fact that a few of these banks like goldman-sachs, split these derivative products together that almost collapsed the greatest financial system of our time and oliver put a great story behind that. he villianized those who should be villianized like they combined it with a family drama like shia, you know, and gordon's daughter, just an unbelievable story. >> so are you. you're going to resign from your job and go right into acting. why don't you make the announcement right now? look at how natural you are in front of that flat screen working around. >> thank you very much. here's what happened in wall street, it didn't really happen in washington, did it? wall street was doing their own thing. you mentioned about lehman and about goldman, how is washington to their defense supposed to know the inner workings of these huge corporation?

>> well, i think this started way before, you know, the collapse. and i think washington had an interference because, i mean, they were giving these mortgages out to everyone who had no income. you would go to the bank and the bank would give you money and a mortgage on top of that to people who couldn't afford these mortgages so i mean, this was, you know, an overall cause over time and not overnight. >> when you went out for drinks at the end of the night, did you look at each other and say this is going to explode some day? >> absolutely. >> people testified on capitol hill they had no idea this was going to happen. >> it was more of a cover-up. to me, i believe that everyone had some insight. you had people that were betting to the down side in a very big way before this happened. >> sure. >> so people profited big time from this collapse. >> that was then, this is now. obviously, wall street has learned from their mistakes. >> please. >> has it changed? >> it has. financial reform was necessary. you cannot give banks the ability to leverage conservative client assets. it can't happen because at the end of the day, if you give all that leverage to people who are

dangerous with that, you're going to have another disaster like we had. >> sure. the movie is made by the parent company of this news channel, 20th century fox. i know guys down on wall street who have the slogan from gordon gecco "greed is good" on their desk. >> they do? >> how many people is he a hero to? >> he's an iconic figure, you know, everyone in a movie likes a villian so, i mean, back in the day with his role as gordon gecco and the greed is good mantra, some people got into it because of that. so there are people down there that do view gordon gecco as an iconic figure. >> congratulations, movie star. >> thank you very much. >> good job. >> c.e.o. of john thomas financial in his real life. >> and oliver stone's new best friend. >> thank you. >> coming up on our show, experts tell us the recession is over. will voters believe that with so many people still unemployed? frank luntz asked them. that's coming up. auto then it's a new documentary highlighting problems in america's education system. >> wake up every morning and

you know that kids are getting a really crappy education right now. >> who is really to blame? the teachers or the unions or the parents? we're going to report and you are going to decide. >> trivia question of the day sounds like this -- [ lisa ] my nams lisa, and i smoked for 29 years. the one thing about smoking -- is it dominates your life, and it dominated mine. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. ♪ it was very interesting that you could smoke on the first week. [ male announcer ] chantix is a non-nicotine pill that stays with you all day to help you quit. in studies, 44% of chantix users were quit

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it adds yellow to the standard rgb color system, for colors never before seen on tv. notice the lifelike color on this yellow seahorse, oh sorry, yellow-ish seahorse on your tv with three color technology. observe this stunning blue sea, in your mind that is. well, you get the picture. actually, you don't. [ male announcer ] quattron from sharp. you have to see it, to see it. >> experts say the recession is over technically but many americans are still struggling to find jobs and pay their bills. fox news contributor frank luntz is with a group of voters down in florida to see what they think about today's economy. >> when i want to understand what americans are thinking, i

come to florida. this is the state that is attracting so many people from other states that it almost has lost its character and yet it is a bellwether of what's going to happen in the future. so let's go right to our panel, what is the number one issue? james, you're one of the youngest people here. >> house foreclosure. >> why? >> because i'm seeing tons of my friends, tons of family that are being kicked out of their houses and they have to move to other states or on the street. >> how many of you by show of hands know someone who has lost their homes? you know people who have lost their homes. tell me what happened. >> i am a social worker and i have more homeless clients than i do in the past seven years of me doing social work. i have clients that have been first time home buyers. they were lied to, took out exorbitant loans and they were told they could use their savings account to add to their income. >> you blame the banks. >> no, i put individual -- i blame the individual as well. you know you can afford a

$300,000 loan when you make $32,000 a year as a teacher. i put some blame on the individual but i blame the banks for misleading. >> i disagree. i'm sorry to disagree. i don't put the blame on the individual. individual is led by the mortgage broker, the mortgage broker who is trying to make a living for himself. >> but your mortgage is calculated for you. why would you get a $300,000 home that you can't afford? >> i understand. here's the thing, america -- most people live beyond their means. >> correct. that's why we're in the problems we are right now. that's why we're in debt right now. >> which is the bigger problem? which is the bigger problem? >> jobs. >> is the bigger problem that people live beyond their means or that government lives beyond its means? >> people. >> how many of you say people, raise your hands. how many of you say government, raise your hands. ok, government wins. what's the issue with government? >> the government is spending money it doesn't have and it's killing our economy. it's going to continue to kill the economy for years to come. >> it's a combination. one leads to the other and also the foreclosure crisis.

chris dodd, barney frank and their crew mandated loans that people simply could not afford. that's underpinnings of the financial meltdown. >> us spending money we don't have a small version of the government not doing it. >> you i feel like we've been on i.o.u.'s forever. if the money is there, take it. that's how it's been. >> you have to look at the roots of the tree and the roots of the tree was forcing banks to make loans they shouldn't have made. the problem is -- >> the economy that you have to straighten out. if we don't straighten that out, all the others will fall into place, housing, etc. >> i think when people determine how much they should spend, they need to look at where the economy is going to be five years from now rather than just looking at the current situation in order to determine the correct income. >> the government only spent out of their means because they had to bail people out. people were spending recklessly. that was people's problem. government only helped that. >> let me ask you, the bailout, the government bailouts, who

supported the bailouts? raise your hands if you supported. it one, two, three of you. who opposed them? i will tell you that florida and nationwide, that's the number one complaint that the public has towards washington, d.c., those bailout votes. clearly, people are still suffering. clearly, despite what you're hearing from washington the recession is not over. it's, unfortunately, alive and well here in florida. back to you. >> all right, frank luntz with a crowd of half democrats and half republicans. >> and the new census looks like florida picked up two more seats in the house. they'll matter even more. >> new york lost. >> new york lost, too. everyone is leaving. the new movie blames teachers unions for dragging down public education. should members of the unions really be upset? we'll ask an expert. >> the number one song on this date in 1985 "money for nothing" by dire straits. good running tune.

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>> answer to the question of the day, gwyneth paltrow, of course. the winner is from texas. congratulations. a new documentary called "waiting for superman" takes aim at the public school system in this country and places blame for its failure on the teachers union. the d.c. schools chancellor michelle reed not mincing words. >> you wake up every morning and you know that kids are getting a really [beep] education right now. >> most kids are getting a [beep] education right now. >> i don't think they are. i know they are. >> joining us now, david banks, the president of the eagle academy foundation in new york. good morning to you, david. >> good morning. >> you have a really interesting situation. the eagle academy, public school in new york city all boys and

you've been in existence seven years. what is your secret? >> our secret is the fact that we get the community involved. we have mentors for all of the young men in our schools. we keep our young men in classes for an additional two hours a day after school as well as on saturdays and in the summertime. i mean, the real formula of an extended school day, extended school week and an extended year really works. >> ok. so you've been in existence seven years. >> yes. >> you say that the graduation rate for you is 87%. what is it in new york city in general? >> for african-american and latino males, the graduation rate is about 47%. it's at crisis proportions and that's not just here in new york city. the numbers are even worse all around this country. >> one. things that's pointed out in this documentary is you have these families waiting for the lottery to -- the opportunity for their children to get into a school like yours. you turn away hundreds, maybe thousands of kids. >> sure.

sure. we turn around thousands. i mean, we have a lottery as well. we are not a charter school. i think charter schools are phenomenal. i think charter schools are really serving as a real call to action to the rest of the school system that we have to do better by our kids. this is a real crisis that we're having in our country. this is a global race to the top. our country is losing, we're very quickly becoming a second tier nation if we don't stand up and do something about it. schools like the eagle academy and other charter schools are really serving as a call to action to the other larger part of the school system. really are. >> one of the things about this documentary is that they follow five families. >> sure. >> right? >> and the thing is that they really attack the teachers union. they say that this is why we are failing our kids. do you agree? >> i agree in large part. i think that there's a big difference between teachers, we have phenomenal teachers who are out there right now in school and getting ready to do a great job today and every day. but the teachers unions really in many ways exist for the adults, not for the kids.

and reserve the rights of adults and i support unions. but i think that the teachers unions in many ways has just been like a union on steroids. >> very interesting statement. let's take a look at this statement. this is from the american federation of teachers. despite guggenheim, the person who made the film, intentions, the film is inaccurate and incomplete. it casts bad teachers and teachers unions as the villians and charter schools as heroes ready to save the day. the character is these caricatures are more fictional than factual. does that sound like somebody immensely under fire right now? >> it's really unfortunate. i think what guggenheim has done is a tremendous service. he's raised the conversation so people around the country are -- >> he's calling you on outliar, david, because you had a different idea of how to approach education. how do you like being called an

outliar? >> i don't like it. i was a public schoolteacher and a founding principal of two different schools, i know what it looks like and i know what it feels like to be in a school. reality is we need people that come from the outside to help being agitateors for the system and break up the status quo. >> here's one of the stats that is scary. 1 in every 67 doctors is removed for poor performance. 1 in 92 lawyers removed for malpractice but one in every 2500 teachers fired for poor performance. >> yes. >> will this documentary wake up america? >> it certainly should. i think everyone should go and see the film. i think everyone needs to get involved. we're not waiting for superman. he doesn't exist. it's going to be you looking in the mirror and realizing that the big part of the solution is you and people in the community getting involved in our public schools. we need it. >> david banks, thanks so much for your thoughts this morning. >> my pleasure. >> we did ask the representative from the union to come on the show and she declined. coming up our show, the congress

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. hope you had a great weekend. it's monday, september 27, 2010. i'm gretchen carlson. democrats say tax cuts are their top priority, so why is a debate getting the boot until after the election now? well, not even democrats can agree on that one. >> steve: could the latest nuclear threat come from another planet? retired air force officers will confirm what we have seen in movies for years. ufos of some sort exist and they have tampered with our nuclear weapons and they have proof. that straight ahead. i'm not kidding. >> brian: breaking news, the millionaire owner of the safeway company found dead. he fell off a cliff and they

found up with of those scooters nearby. >> steve: oh, no. >> brian: "fox & friends" starts right now. # >> you're watching "fox & friends." >> steve: howdy. welcome aboard from studio e. it's a rainy day in new york city. >> brian: just outside, but inside, nothing but artificial sunshine. >> gretchen: artificial? >> brian: yes. that's what i call lightning. >> gretchen: oh, i thought you meant us. hopefully we'll have glimmers of sunshine today. we have to start with your headlines. the owner of the subway company has been found dead in england after riding one of the scooters off a cliff. jimmy drove off a cliff into a river while riding the segueway to inspects the grounds around his estate. the death believed to be an accident. he had just bought the company last december. the news comes just a week after he gave away nearly $16 millllin to one of his charities. it could be easier for the

feds to track terrorists and other criminals on the internet. security officials are asking congress now to clear the way for wire taps to include e-mail, blackberries and social networking sites. investigators say more suspects use the internet to communicate instead of the phone. a bill will be submitted to lawmakers next year. new efforts to free those two american hikers detained in iran. according to an iranian newspaper, the oman delegation, which helped free sarah shourd is back in the country trying to obtain the release of the other two. iran maintains that the two hikers are american spies. check out this dramatic new video from new york's jfk airport showing sparks flying from that delta plane when it was forced to make an emergency landing with its right wheel jammed in the up position. listen as the flight attendant yells for passengers to get in the crash position. >> get down! stay down! stay down!

>> gretchen: here is the conversation between the pilot and control tower just moments before. >> we proceed to jfk and ask for emergency landing over there. if it's not completely obvious, i want to confirm we are declaring an emergency. >> i understand. you have right gear stuck down? >> right gear is stuck up. the other two are down. >> gretchen: luckily the plane landed safely and no one was hurt. it's now been more than six months since elections in iraq and the country's political leaders haven't formed a government. will the gridlock ever be broken? and what does this mean for the american troops still stationed there? joining us live from baghdad is malini wilkes. good morning. >> good morning. nearly seven months after the national elections, iraqi politicians have failed to form a government and choose a prime minister. the election was close and there was no clear mandate. to review, the former prime

minister got the most votes. 91. kurd prime minister had 89. but both are far short of the 163 need to do form a majority. ma lackey is a little closer. they have a crack down on shiite militias and they have refused to support him. there is questions about iranian involvement. many believe that the iranians are trying to make sure there is a shiite candidate that they endorse in the top job. that is denied. >> the election you could see that many meetings being held in the assembly capital, which gives a message that the regional countries want to create another form of lebanon here in iraq. that didn't work.

>> allawi's coalition takes the opposite point of view and say there is nor iranian meddling than ever. the united states hoped there would be a unity between the two, but sunnies believe that the ma la key government targeted them for arrest. >> it's not right to leave malaki in such a state because he's behaving as dictator -- i mean governor. no parliament, only the army is in his hand. >> it's unclear who will be prime minister. allawi doesn't have the numbers. the other group has an alternate. it doesn't look like the kurds are crazy about him. >> gretchen: malini, thank you very much for that report. >> steve: from politics there to politics here.

how many months have we heard the democrats say the middle class, don't you folks worry. we are going to make sure that those bush era tax cuts get extended for all of you. well, fast forward to today and that's not going to happen before the election because they don't want to be tagged as the party that then raises tacks on the most successful people in america. joe lieberman says raising taxes now, bad. listen to a sound bite. >> it is a possibility and to me, it's the surest way to send america back into a second dip of a recession. >> what it gets down to is we can count and we know we don't have 60 votes for our tax position. >> brian: that's it. you don't have the votes in the senate. you have joe lieberman is not going to vote for that, ben nelson won't terrorist that. at least three others won't vote for that. maybe closer to 40 now in the house, democrats who say, i want all the bush tax cuts extended and they have to give a date.

most economists say you have to give at least two years. so it's not even a matter of well, should we be the party that taxes the rich. most polls show that america is not against taxing people who make over $250,000 more. but right now there is a concern that if you tax those people, those people aren't going to spend and how are we going to get out of this economic mess? >> gretchen: especially now when you're in this uncertainty zone. businesses were already saying, we're not going to hire anyone because we don't know what's going to happen with health care. now you add this to the whole equation. that means that more of the status quo here for however many months. we're already hearing from so many frustrated citizens and thinking of velma again, who say, this isn't working for me. is this my new reality and here we have politics at play again and it's causing all of us to sit around and wonder when is this going to happen. dick durbin telling the truth. they don't have the votes. >> brian: speaker pelosi say we

might do the vote. hoyer walked it back. i assume pelosi was talking more hopeful. let's talk about president obama's approval rating. many have pointed to independents. that's the reason. the gop is more motivated. that's the reason. there is another reason. >> steve: that's right. and in politico today, they talk about how when you look at the people who are going to be voting in the upcoming midterms, who is really, really motivated? the answer, men. republican men, because when they asked the questions of everybody across the political spectrum, but when they asked light, are you going to likely vote, republican men seem to be the most motivated. meanwhile, at the other side, 48% of republican men call themselves very enthusiastic about voting. whereas only 28% of democratic women say that they are the same. and republican women, democratic

men, in the middle. you've got one side this very motivated republican man. least motivated, democratic women. >> gretchen: coming up today at the national press club in washington, there will be an amazing announcement by six retired military personnel. what will they talk about? not military strategies about war. they say that they're going to confirm that they have seen ufos throughout their careers dating back to 1967 and that they believe that these ufo craft and whomever is inside of them, was tampering with nuclear sites that we have across the united states of america. there are six retired military personnel who are going to stand up there and say, we were told never to talk about this, but now we are. >> steve: a couple of them have written some books and stuff and in the stuff we've seen so far about the testimony they've given and stories they've told, there is one guy who said he was in a bunker at i think a minute

man site and 30 to 50-foot wide disk was above one of these nuke missile sites and they were given the order, hey, protect. so suddenly the bells are ringing and stuff. and for some reason, the missile started malfunctioning. never went off, obviously. but they think that for some reason, these disks from wherever have been tampering with our nukes. >> brian: bruce duane, robert, patrick, jerry nelson, bob, all officers, all are saying the same story about different incidents. some served at different times. so there is a book out that there are over 100 officers who say the same thing. this intelligence life, if this is the case, we'll lead with it tomorrow, they have identified. >> gretchen: the united nations knows that they're going to be doing this press conference because now they're going to appoint an earth contact

ambassador for those aliens. she's going to be known as the leader for the office for leadership affairs. seriously. nusa. this woman is now saying, look, we should be prepared for any of these encounters and so now the united nations will be funding this. >> brian: i for one hope whoever encounters us friendly, just wants to talk. but she's the perfect person. she's a scientist from malaysia and she's not somebody who is going to put their personality first. she's going to go into the background and just speak for earth in general. >> steve: you're right. >> brian: oftentimes, what's the first thing aliens say, take me to your leader. this time we can say, they're asking for you. she's been told to pick up. i would like to represent her from another planet and represent the earth. >> steve: what if a spacecraft from another entity came here looking for intelligent life?

what if they accidentally went to washington, d.c.? >> brian: that would be a shame. >> gretchen: they would never be able to land because there is a lot of hot air. coming up, the african-american voting bloc helped elect president obama. but there is concern those same voters are now abandoning him. the first african-american governor here next to lend his perspective. >> steve: then sex, violence, money, drugs coming to the classroom. there is a plan to teach students about rapper 50-cent. that story straight ahead.

>> brian: when president obama addressed the black congressional caucus earlier, he had this to say. >> it's not the man, it's the plan. that was true 40 years ago. it is true today. >> gretchen: but our next guest says the plan isn't very promising and that no amount of rallying will impact the november election. we're joined by former governor of virginia, doug wilder, the first african-american governor. good morning to you, governor. >> good morning, gretchen, brian. always good to be here. >> gretchen: good to have you as well. so what do you make of what the president said and then when you look at the support and how that's dwindling in the african-american community, 26% of democrats now say they're excited compared with 80% when

president obama was elected. >> that's the real issue. it's not really an issue as to whether people don't still want to see president obama do well. most people in the nation want to see him do well, want to see the nation do well. the real question is is there a transference effect. is he able to say, listen, vote for such and such a people or such and such a persons because if you do that, it could help me. now, you got midterm elections almost a month away. you've got people looking pretty bad in some instances, particularly in the congress and the house. and is it enough at this time to do that? when you have this lady in atlanta asking the president a question, it was so poignant and so descriptive of what's out there, people are saying, listen, everything might be doing fine for a lot of people, but what about us?

what about that excitement? what about that change? we haven't seen it yet. we still want to you do well. we want to support you, but help us. >> brian: here is velma hart, a little bit of it in case people missed it to put it in context. >> i'm one of your middle class americans. and quite frankly, i'm exhausted. i'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that i voted for. the financial recession has taken an enormous toll on our family. my husband and i joked that we were wealthy, but quite frankly it's starting to knock on our doors and ring true that might be where we're headed. is this any new reality. >> gretchen: hearing that from a successful african-american woman, a mom, executive, cfo, do you think he reacted in a way that benefited him? do you think there was an opportunity lost? did he show the heart and the

sympathy and empathy? >> i have been long saying and you know it, on this show and others that i've appeared with, that sometimes it's not the president. he's right, it's not the man, it's the plan. the question is, where is that plan and where are those people in the white house who are connecting on the ground who can identify with the velma harts and others who say this is what you and i need to do, mr. president. that needs to be a brand-new set of advisors. >> gretchen: you came on the show months ago and started talking about that and you were one of the few who was speaking out. you were speaking out against his advisors surrounding him. what does he need to do now, in your mind? >> i think what he needs to do, and i had that question asked to me. i was in washington, d.c. this weekend at an event and people come up and who want to see the president do well, who want to help him. and i said, well, i don't know the answer. but i think if i were the

president, i would be paying more attention to the people on the ground level. have people advising me, telling me what i need to hear rather than what they think i want to hear. and laying it straight out. the recession is still there for a lot of people. jobs are not -- people are wanting for jobs. the economy hasn't turned around for a lot of people. then that moment that you spoke of in terms of the president may have missed to be blunt and to say, look, we haven't come where i want to come for all of america's people, and particularly when you look at the high unemployment numbers with african-american youth and people to acknowledge it and to point it out as a problem that needs to be addressed. >> gretchen: 16.3% among african-americans, the unemployment rate. governor doug wilder, formerly of virginia, great to see you. thank you very much. >> always good, thank you so much. >> brian: thank you. the governor also echoed what president clinton has said. he said president obama needed to hear what velma.

producers of "jersey shore" let a big secret shore. why they cut the scene where rescue crews rushed snooki to the hospital. >> gretchen: sucks and dregs -- sex and drugs come to the classroom. want to go teach classes about 50-cent and his life.

>> gretchen: fox news alert. coming to us from paris, france, the second busiest station in the country is shut down and evacuated because of two suspicious packages. no trains are stopping at the station while police and the bomb squad investigate. it's now being reported as well that snooki, the star of mtv "jersey shore" was hospitalized for suspected alcohol poisoning. radar.com reporting this happened in may. but the story just coming out now. word is she had to be carried out of a bar by producers.

steve? >> steve: meanwhile, from a drug dealing thug to multi-millionaire, rapper 50-cent story is compelling and detailed in his book "from pieces to aid." should this be the one inspiring your kids in the classroom? that's what one school district is doing and has parents outraged. we're joined by reverend marlow washington. good morning to you. >> good morning. how are you? >> steve: i'm fine. but i know you're a little bugged this morning that the school district up there put 50-cent's story, his book on the summer reading list. why? >> that is correct. well, i think that we can use other morally grounded books that share and espouses from someone else with some type of moral background. this moral fiber who comes from the rags to riches of life rather than using someone who

consistently uses profanity, sex, violence and drugs as a way to get to where one is getting. >> steve: speaking of profanity, i looked up on-line yesterday and i looked into the book and i saw at least 50 excerpts where they used the f word and that was just in some clean situations. what about the argument, reverend, that look, this is a guy who made it out of the mean streets and he survived and now he's making money, so maybe kids can learn from it? >> no, no. this is not how we want our kids to learn. i think the way we want our kids to learn is to understand that you can become successful but still have is a moral grounding. i think the problem is that we're teaching our kids that you could be successful, but by any means necessary. by the way, if the means that you degrade women, by the way, if it means you go ahead and have sex. by the way, if you go ahead and just continue to do all of the bad things of life and emulate that type of lifestyle from the

ghetto in order to get wealthy or successful, that's a wrong message. i don't think that any school district should be supporting and endorsing any type of behavior in that regard. >> steve: reverend, here is what the school district says. quote, the rochester school district believes it is important to provide students with reading options that will engage them and encourage thoughtful discussion in the classroom. this book, which was one of some 80 books students could choose from, presents a learning opportunity that is at the core of what education is about. critical thinking, debate and discussion of opposing viewpoints. sir, go ahead. >> no, i don't agree with that. i think in my city, rochester alone, we're going through enough of the drug culture, we're going through enough of all kinds of other kinds of major problem in our school district. i just cannot believe, i just cannot think that my school district in rochester would go ahead and say that this would

incite or create thoughtful, provocative discussion in the classroom and then it's okay. i guess it will create provocative discussion, but what it will also do, it will take that discussion to another level and we are trying to prevent our kids from taking this type of discussion and going to another level whereby they will now begin to practice what they're discussing. so i have a major problem conservatively because of the fact that we can discuss anything, but then after you discuss in theory, then you take that discussion and you practice it in reality and i think enough about kids are living that life now. we are seeing a lot of our young people living that life now. why would we want to continue to discuss a lifestyle that we're already living and then continue to talk about it and then go to the next level, to practice it even more? >> steve: excellent, excellent points. reverend washington, thank you very much for joining us today from rochester.

>> have a good day. >> steve: thank you. you as well. what do you think, people watching? would you let your kids read the 50-cent book? e-mail us right now. it's a new documentary highlighting problems in america's education system. >> you wake up every morning and you know that kids are getting a really crappy education right now. >> steve: clip from "waiting for superman," president obama reacting to it just moments ago. we'll share that with you. talk about an international mistake, the president's flag flap at the united nations. accidentally putting one country at war. whoopsie daisy. plus, country superstar dierks bentley joining us in 20 minutes with a big, big announcement. you don't want to miss it.

>> gretchen: time for your shot of the morning. accidental insult by the obama administration.

flying the flag of the philippines upside down during a u.n. meeting on friday. that's typically a sign the country is at war. oh, oh u.s. officials say that it was an honest mistake. at the very moment, renewed building by jewish settlers underway on the west bank and it's threatening the peace talks with palestinians. joining us now live from the west bank is leeland with an update. good morning to you. >> good morning, gretchen. this is the picture that the international community was really trying to prevent. the u.s. included. take a look. you can see this jewish settlement, the house beyond it and in the back here, beginning work on another housing unit here. to set the scene, we're here on the west bank. this is the area that the palestinians want for their future state. so the idea of jewish settlers building on it is not making them very happy. where we're standing, this concrete pad here, is a foundation for another settlement. this is really important. this is poured ten months ago

before the settlement freeze began. they stopped work for ten months. settlement freeze expired at midnight. they are back working again. the palestinians have said they're going to walk away from these talks if this construction resumed. they haven't walked away yet. as for the israelis, the prime minister said that he expects all israelis to show restraint and that person in his office said that he viewed the settlement construction as simply another road block in the peace process. i asked some of the settlers here. was this showing restraint? he said, we want to do build 3,000 apartments here, so we thought building 26 showed a lot of restraint. gretchen. >> gretchen: thank you very much for that update on a very hotly contested issue. >> steve: over in this country, a severe weather alert in the midwest. a levy is failing in portage, wisconsin and could flood the whole town at any moment. heavy rains are driving the wisconsin river more than 3 1/2 feet above flood stage. the levee, 120 years old, built

in the 1800s, of sand. that's not good. meanwhile, hundreds of homes in minnesota and south dakota are also under water. some areas have not seen flooding like this, this bad, in 15 years. let's go to the doppler and the satellite as well to find out where it is raining. currently not raining in wisconsin. you can see through portions of northern minnesota could impact wisconsin. but for the most part, it is a big rain event all the way from the great lakes down through the florida panhandle, up through mid atlantic where it's particularly heavy at this time. the balance of the country nice and dry on this monday. >> brian: you're by the window, is it raining in new york? it's raining. >> steve: thank you very much. do we need a second source? >> brian: yeah, joe, could you check that window? thank you very much. let me tell you what's happening around the world. iran confirming its nuclear program infected by a computer virus. the head of the power plant says the virus is only affecting

staff computers and not the system running the reactor. the problem comes just weeks before the country's first nuclear power station is set to go on-line. >> gretchen: the door opened wider for rahm emanuel, david hoffman, considering a run for mayor in chicago, now says he's not going to jump into the race. it's been rumored that white house chief of staff rahm emanuel is interested in that job. he has until november, not very long, to decide if he's going to ditch the white house for chicago. >> steve: brian kilmeade has been off camera. have you been able to confirm whether it's raining? >> i saw a cumulus cloud, but not able to get a name, nor do i know what that means. we heard rahm emanuel, the president talked about rahm emanuel, the story you just read, and he said that rahm emanuel has to make up his mind soon. quickly. according to the voice in my head, which could be my conscious. it's time for the biggest award show on television. the return of brian's best because the football season is here. first best run of the day, it

wasn't me, it was from adrian peterson of the vikings 'cause he's good, he's strong and he's class. he outruns by one of our staffers -- outruns two quarterbacks, 80 yards in all. 160 on the day. gretchen is happy, finally. the score was 24-10. next up, best catch. it happened in tampa. the steelers, mike wallace. no relation to chris wallace. check out the concentration on that bomb. eighth string quarterback charlie batch. 38-13 the final. finally, the player of the day, michael vick. he kills tortures jacksonville's defense. watch this to jackson. perfectly laid out pass. vick showed he can outrun anyone. four touchdowns on the day.

mr. cobb, it turns out to be a very good move. he's playing for a million dollars and as i say often, how do you live on that? >> gretchen: that's his second chance. he's making good of it so far. let's talk about that "waiting for superman" documentary. it's only opened in new york and l.a. and coming to you see. probably something you should see. this is about the public school situation in america right now and here is one little clip about that. >> you wake up every morning and you know that kids are getting a really (bleep) education right now. >> you think most kids are getting a (bleep) education right now. >> steve: that's michelle re, probably outgoing chancellor of the dc school district, which is one of the nation's worst. what the -- >> beth: she's considered one of the best. right? >> steve: yeah, she's done a good job. of the movie, done by davis guggenheim, who did inconvenient truth, what he looks at is the unions, the teachers unions and

how they protect bad teachers in many instances and rather than get rid of the bad up with, they keep them around and the really good young ones, that expression, last hired, first fired. the president was asked earlier today on the today show about those teachers' unions. here is what he had to say. >> i am a strong supporters of the notion that the union can protect its members and help be part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem. but you can't defend a status quo in which a third of our kids are dropping out. you can't defend a status quo when you've got 2,000 schools across the country that are dropout factories and they really are, where more than half of the kids are dropping out. we've got to be able to identify teachers who are doing well, those not doing well. we've got to give them the support and the training to do well and ultimately if some teachers aren't doing a good job, they've got to go. >> gretchen: here is the thing, that sounds good, but the president really can't have it

both ways. you can't say that i support the union and then say, yeah, we're going to get rid of bad teachers 'cause the union is protecting those bad teachers and this documentary, this small little film is going to bring this entire issue to the forefront of the american mind. let's take a look at randi, weingartner, here is what she said. >> brian: despite guggenheim's good intentions, "waiting for superman" is inaccurate and inconsistent and incomplete. the film casts several outliars in starring role, bad teachers and teachers unions as the villains and charter schools heros ready to save the day. the problem is, these caricatures are more fictional than factual. >> steve: exactly right. i think there are now three films out right now that talk all about the crisis in america's schools. look how much we pay each year to educate the kids. are we at the top of the list? no. once upon a time american schools were the envy of the

world, but no longer. so many countries are ahead of us. i think this is putting it front and center where people are saying, wait a minute, we're paying all that money and our kids aren't learning anything. >> brian: i remember jeb bush came out and saying a lot of the same things the president is saying. maybe this is one issue they can get together on. but the unions will be the stumbling block. >> gretchen: also the spending because we've documented on this show how much more we are paying per student in the last 20 years and the scores are going down. so if the president's philosophy is to dump more money into the system, maybe that's not the answer. >> brian: i know three teachers very well and they all have taken money out of their pocket for their projects and supplies. 'cause they don't want to charge the kids. >> steve: and my daughter's high school, they're getting rid of -- not getting rid of any of the teachers and she's detailed some that have not done a very good job, but they're getting rid of music programs and getting rid of field trips. >> brian: sports have been

destroyed, by the way. >> steve: absolutely. if you want to be part of the hockey team in my school, you got to cough up $2,000 for your kid to be on the team. >> brian: that's the most expensive sport. >> gretchen: we'll continue to follow that story. >> brian: he claims america is responsible for 9-11 and says the holocaust did not happen. so why would any americans want to meet with iran's president? peter johnson, jr. here next with a growing trend, americans sympathizing with the enemy. >> gretchen: dierks bentley, one of the country music stars you know and love is here on "fox & friends" with a big announcement. can't miss that.

>> gretchen: iranian president ahmadinejab had quite the time in the united states last week between interviews and speeches bashing america and blaming the u.s., of course, for 9-11. ahmadinejab reportedly even met with nation of islam leader,

farrakhan, and members of the new black panther party. so why do some americans find the need to love our enemies? fox news legal analyst peter johnson, jr. joins us. i hope you have the answer. >> i'm mystified. we have a situation in this country now that we saw in a lawsuit over the weekend where the family of anwar al-awlaki who is suspected of being involved with various terrorist acts or attempts here in the united states, his family, along with the aclu, is trying to stop the federal government from its so-called targeted assassination. the government says it's a state secret and not allow a so-called terrorist to be privy to our operations. so we have an organization called the aclu trying to enforce the rights of an alleged terrorist under the guise, this is really an american and this should be subject of due process. now we have a published report that nation of islam leader louis farrakhan, along with

members of the new black panther party last tuesday at the warwick hotel, a few blocks up 6th avenue here from this studio, met with mr. ahmadinejab. >> gretchen: why? >> it's incredible to me, but unfortunately, i think it speaks a certain loss of sanity in this country with regard to a recognition of who our enemies are. the nation of iran is recognized as the leader, the principle leader of state-sponsored terrorism by the department of state. >> gretchen: farrakhan has the ability, of course, because he is here in america, he has the ability to sit down and meet with ahmadinejab. that is his right. but why are we not hearing more about it? why wouldn't groups come out and denounce this meeting with an enemy? >> i think hopefully that once people begin to understand that it took place and there is a

recognition of the inappropriateness of such a meeting and there is a recognition that whether you like mr. farrakhan or not, whether you like what he stands for or not, he is a person that has some following in this country. and i think even the folks that follow mr. farrakhan in this country want good things for america, hopefully. to consort in a way that is disturbing with the leader of iran, a person who is now decrying america, decrying israel, decrying whether 9-11 ever took place, and now calling for trials. >> gretchen: just today back in iran, he said an in-depth inquiry needs to be conducted in the 9-11 incident. he's still blaming america for that. peter, always great to get your thoughts. >> thank you. >> gretchen: country star dierks bentley is here next and has a huge announcement. first, let's check in with martha mccallum for what's on

at the top of the hour. >> thank you. good morning, everybody. remember all the debate over the phone wire taps in the bush administration? now the ability to tap into your black berry or facebook is on the way courtesy of the obama administration. that is a very hot topic. we're going to talk about it this morning and a policeman stage has fake arrest of his 14-year-old daughter's boyfriend. why? bill and i join you at the top of the hour. we'll see you then.

>> steve: let's take you back not so long ago. lives were lost, homes void and businesses torn apart when nashville, tennessee was hit by devastating floods back in may. even the legendary grand ole opry was washed out by the waters. >> brian: now four months later with the city, the city is back, and they have a big

announcement. >> gretchen: joining us with that announcement is dierks bentley. good morning to you. >> good morning. how are you doing? >> gretchen: fantastic. so we have been holding our breath for three hours for you to be our guest and give us the big announcement. what is it? >> i wish i could be there in row faster than walk. >> it's unbelievable. a lot of the city still is struggling, but the opry really focused hard on getting the stage back together. they know how important the opry is not only to country music fans, but just to nashville in general. it's really important to get this building up and running, just for the whole community in general, just to have the opry back together and i'm here today for the first time.

i saw devastation. i saw the work along the way as they stripped it bear and start putting it back together. but today being here for the first time t looks unbelievable. the stage looks great. the back stage area looks unbelievable and i can't wait to get out here tomorrow night and sing on it. >> steve: tell us about when they moved from the ryeman auditorium to the new facility, they took a six foot peace of wood called the circle. that is a sentimental feeling for a lot of performers. that was impacted as well. right? >> it was. yeah. luckily that wood is so old, that wood goes back to the 20s. that stage, the original stage, guys like hank williams and patsy cline and elvis presley even, johnny cash singing on that original stage. when they moved the opry to this building in the '70s, they took a circle from the center of that stage to the center of this stage so you're still standing in the foot steps of those

legends. the wood is so old and so dense, like an old guitar, water didn't affect it. it was able to resist the damage. it's up and running and looks great. it's in the center of the stage. why wait to stand on it and stand in the spotlight tomorrow night. >> gretchen: speaking of standing on something that a lot of those good old time people stood on, listen to who will be with you standing there tomorrow night. we have brad pacely, keith urban, martina mcbride, trace adkins. but you have something on them, right? you are the youngest person ever to be inducted into the grand ole opry hall of fame. >> i was. yeah. been five years now. it's an amazing feeling. we make our living on the road. i played all over the country. i played in more cities and states i think than any politician has ever stumped in. i've been to every town in this country. but to come back here and this is home for us and to be on this stage, i can't wait to be out here tomorrow night. it's a special room. keith urban, brad paysy and

others, i think everybody wants to be part of the show. >> brian: i'm wondering, is there a song that you have in mind that maybe the three of us could show up and sing background vocals and not screw it up? we would love to do that and get in free. if we were performing that, would do it for us. >> i think you need to learn "the circle of the unbroken." the great carter song. >> steve: that's great. it's going to be great for you yourself, this has been very personal 'cause you got damage with the big floods, too, right? >> yeah. my house got hit. we had a couple feet of water in the basement. i think everybody i know had some sort of damage. there are still a lot of people trying to put their lives together. but having this building back up and running, it's a great national -- great show of support, the community coming together and i think it shows the rest of the country that nashville is open for business again and we're looking forward to kicking that off tomorrow night. >> we showed awe picture with the bucket, different kind of bucket.

>> if i had known that picture was going to go up, i would have taken a lot better picture. >> steve: looks like a bucket you stole from home depot. >> orange plastic bucket, you can't go wrong. >> gretchen: we'll give you a couple of minutes to think of a song we can sing in case we decide to head down tomorrow night. more with dirks when we come back.

>> steve: very nice. what number are you going to be doing tomorrow night at the reopening of the opry? >> what can you expect? >> reporter: very nice. what number are you going to be tomorrow night at the reopening of the opry? >> what can you expect. >> reporter: what number are you going to do. >> i think i'll do a new